DASH Diet

The stress and strain plaguing our everyday lives lead towards many lifestyle diseases. One of the most common one here is hypertension. Referred to as the “silent killer” a large chunk of the population around the world suffers from it. Though medications are available to help counter hypertension would it not be better if we could do the same with our diet? There are present diets which are so designed so as to counter and improve the condition of hypertension. The DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet is targeted towards the condition of hypertension. It has also been found that this diet helps lower cholesterol too. So how does the DASH diet help control hypertension?

The DASH diet includes in itself foods that are low in fat along with lots of vegetables and fruits. Whole grains and pulses too finds a mention in the DASH diet. Therefore if one does a general survey of all the food items which are permitted in the DASH diet then one can see that the food items which find a mention in this list are low fat and high fiber products. Also they would have low level of proteins.

This diet does not advocate frying the food stuff rather suggests that one should opt for baking, grilling or steaming the food items. This allows for the retention of food nutrients and at the same time does not add to it unwanted calories which are otherwise added to it during frying. Like any other diet plan, the best way to increase the positive results of it is to completely refrain from the use of tobacco and alcohol and at the same time combine this diet plan with any form of cardio vascular exercise. This would allow the individual to maintain healthy levels of cholesterol as well as blood pressure.